“The two sweetest words in the English language! De-FAULT!” - Homer Simpson
Without lifting a finger, the Valley Huskers have evened their record at 3-3 thanks to an oopsie by the Vancouver Island Raiders.
The BC Football Conference announced Wednesday (Oct. 13) that an Oct. 2 game at Chilliwack’s Exhibition Stadium that the Raiders won 21-19 will now count as a 1-0 Husker victory.
“The VI Raiders football team has had to forfeit a regular season victory due to an ineligible player,” the BCFC announced in a tweet.
All game stats will remain, and in a followup tweet, the BCFC noted that “the ruling by the BCFC falls within their rules and regulations for ineligible players.”
Huskers head coach Bob Reist would have preferred to beat the Raiders on the football field, and his team almost did if not for a last minute field goal attempt by kicker Ethan Homan that sailed wide left.
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“It was certainly surprising. We didn’t expect to get a win like that,” Reist said. “It’s a weird feeling getting a win in a game that you lost. It sits oddly, but for us and what we’re trying to do, it works out.”
Reist said the Huskers weren’t aware of any Raider roster shenanigans the day of the game, and his team didn’t submit anything to the BCFC that would have led to the forfeit win.
He also doesn’t believe much changes with the altered result.
For the moment, the Huskers are now in third place in the six-team league with their 3-3 record, while the Raiders drop one game behind at 2-3 (with a game in hand). The teams are scheduled to meet again Oct. 30 at NDSS Turf Field in Nanaimo.
“I don’t think we’re get into second place or anything like that because of it,” said Reist, whose team is unlikely to reel in the 5-1 Okanagan Sun. “It changes things pretty drastically for VI, I guess. Either way, that last game of the season was going to be for playoff seeding. It changes things for where we might sit coming into it, but that game was obviously going to be super important no matter what.”